Can I use general short stories to publish on my site, blog, etc.?"You cannot post any material for which you do not have copyright." Sorry, but while the gist holds, stated that way this is wrong. You cannot publish material for which you do not have permission that is under copyright. There is plenty of material that is out of copyright. Note that a rework of an old classic may be under copyright even though the original is not.

Using emails in an autobiography@TRiG I'm pretty sure the OP is asking about whether it is acceptable to use existing emails within a larger work, rather than asking about telling one's life's story through made-up emails.

Oct22

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Is it so bad to end up with a “done before” plot?"This is a ripoff" can also mean that the author allowed themselves to be too heavily influenced by the "this or that" work, quite possibly inadvertantly. Consider something like a detective story. It's basically been told again and again, with minor variations in the plot. That doesn't necessarily make people go "this is a ripoff of Sherlock Holmes". However, if you use so many elements from Holmes and nothing from elsewhere that the result feels like it could just as well have been a Holmes book with a few names changed, then you are in ripoff territory IMO.

Oct22

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Can a book be written without an antagonist?@SF. In such a case, couldn't the antagonist be said to be the (protagonist's) lack of understanding? After all, I'd argue that the antagonist doesn't necessarily have to be a character within the story; it's only the main story element keeping the protagonist from achieving their goal(s) (and even more so when as the OP one starts thinking in terms of "antagonistic theme"). That obstacle often is, but I don't see it having to be, a character or a group of characters either on stage or off stage.